It may be conceit, but I believe the subject will interest the public, and I am sure that the views are original. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
The Times is getting more detestable (but that is too weak word) than ever. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Formerly Milton's Paradise Lost had been my chief favourite, and in my excursions during the voyage of the Beagle, when I could… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Our ancestor was an animal which breathed water, had a swim-bladder, a great swimming tail, an imperfect skull & undoubtedly was an… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
“The limit of man s knowledge in any subject possesses a high interest which is perhaps increased by its close neighbourhood to… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Till facts are grouped & called there can be no prediction. The only advantage of discovering laws is to foretell what will… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
I am quite conscious that my speculations run beyond the bounds of true science…It is a mere rag of an hypothesis with… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Seeing this gradation and diversity of structure in one small, intimately related group of birds, one might really fancy that from an… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Great is the power of steady misrepresentation; but the history of science shows that fortunately this power does not long endure. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
The tree of life should perhaps be called the coral of life, base of branches dead; so that passages cannot be seen-this… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
...I believe there exists, & I feel within me, an instinct for the truth, or knowledge or discovery, of something of the… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
It appears to me (whether rightly or wrongly) that direct arguments against Christianity and theism produce hardly any effect on the public;… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Some few, and I am one of them, even wish to God, though at the loss of millions of lives, that the… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
It appears to me (whether rightly or wrongly) that direct arguments against Christianity and theism produce hardly any effect on the public;… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Hereafter we shall be compelled to acknowledge that the only distinction between species and well-marked varieties is, that the latter are known,… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
It is really laughable to see what different ideas are prominent in various naturalists' minds, when they speak of 'species'; in some,… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
This preservation of favourable variations and the destruction of injurious variations, I call Natural Selection, or the Survival of the Fittest. Variations… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
[Herschel and Humboldt] stirred up in me a burning zeal to add even the most humble contribution to the noble structure of… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for they often endure long; but false views, if supported by some… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
It is no valid objection that science as yet throws no light on the far higher problem of the essence or origin… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Daily it is forced home on the mind of the biologist that nothing, not even the wind that blows, is so unstable… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
The main conclusion arrived at in this work, namely that man is descended from some lowly-organised form, will, I regret to think,… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
We thus learn that man is descended from a hairy quadruped, furnished with a tail and pointed ears, probably arboreal in its… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
At no time am I a quick thinker or writer: whatever I have done in science has solely been by long pondering,… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
I have been speculating last night what makes a man a discoverer of undiscovered things; and a most perplexing problem it is.… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
I always feel as if my books came half out of Lyell's brain... & therefore that when seeing a thing never seen… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
“It is no valid objection that science as yet throws no light on the far higher problem of the essence or origin… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
During my second year at Edinburgh [1826-27] I attended Jameson's lectures on Geology and Zoology, but they were incredible dull. The sole… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
To my deep mortification my father once said to me, "You care for nothing but shooting, dogs, and rat-catching, and you will… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
I have steadily endeavoured to keep my mind free so as to give up any hypothesis, however much beloved (and I cannot… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
We may confidently come to the conclusion, that the forces which slowly and by little starts uplift continents, and that those which… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universes, to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Man is developed from an ovule, about 125th of an inch in diameter, which differs in no respect from the ovules of… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
A surprising number [of novels] have been read aloud to me, and I like all if moderately good, and if they do… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
About weak points [of the Origin] I agree. The eye to this day gives me a cold shudder, but when I think… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
It has been a bitter mortification for me to digest the conclusion that the "race is for the strong" and that I… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
I am not very skeptical... a good deal of skepticism in a scientific man is advisable to avoid much loss of time,… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
I find in the domestic duck that the bones of the wing weigh less and the bones of the leg more, in… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Your words have come true with a vengeance that I shd [should] be forestalled ... I never saw a more striking coincidence.… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
I trust and believe that the time spent in this voyage ... will produce its full worth in Natural History; and it… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
The main conclusion here arrived at ... is that man is descended from some less highly organized form. — Charles Darwin Copy Share
So great is the economy of nature, that most flowers which are fertilised by crepuscular or nocturnal insects emit their odour chiefly or exclusively… — Charles Darwin Copy Share
I see no good reasons why the views given in this volume should shock the religious views of anyone. — Charles Darwin Copy Share
I am quite conscious that my speculations run beyond the bounds of true science…It is a mere rag of an hypothesis with as many… — Charles Darwin Copy Share
If worms have the power of acquiring some notion, however rude, of the shape of an object and over their burrows, as seems the… — Charles Darwin Copy Share
We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universes, to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to… — Charles Darwin Copy Share
Formerly Milton's Paradise Lost had been my chief favourite, and in my excursions during the voyage of the Beagle, when I could take only… — Charles Darwin Copy Share
May we not suspect that the vague but very real fears of children, which are quite independent of experience, are the inherited effects of… — Charles Darwin Copy Share
It may be said that natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinizing, throughout the world, every variation, even the slightest; rejecting that which is… — Charles Darwin Copy Share
“Darwin, landing in Brazil in 1832, had a similar reaction, colored by his reading of his predecessor." Humboldt's glorious descriptions are & will for… — Charles Darwin Copy Share
“To admit that species generally become rare before they become extinct—to feel no surprise at the comparative rarity of one species with another, and… — Charles Darwin Copy Share
To suppose that the eye could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree — Charles Darwin Copy Share
It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank clothed with many plants of many kinds with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects… — Charles Darwin Copy Share
![“I am quite conscious that my speculations run beyond the bounds of true science…It is a mere rag of an hypothesis with as many flaw[s] & holes as sound parts.” quote by Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/958/charles-darwin-507_bounds_i-am-quite-conscious-that-my-speculation_35382.jpg)
![“It appears to me (whether rightly or wrongly) that direct arguments against Christianity and theism produce hardly any effect on the public; It appears to me freedom of thought is best promoted by the gradual illumination of men's minds which follow[s] from the advance of science.” quote by Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/560/charles-darwin-507_argument_it-appears-to-me-whether-rightly-or-wron_360613.jpg)
![“[Herschel and Humboldt] stirred up in me a burning zeal to add even the most humble contribution to the noble structure of Natural Science. No one or a dozen other books influenced me nearly so much as these two. I copied out from Humboldt long passages about Teneriffe and read them aloud on one…” quote by Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/909/charles-darwin-507_add_herschel-and-humboldt-stirred-up-in-me-a_2886288.jpg)
![“During my second year at Edinburgh [1826-27] I attended Jameson's lectures on Geology and Zoology, but they were incredible dull. The sole effect they produced on me was the determination never as long as I lived to read a book on Geology.” quote by Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/42c/charles-darwin-507_biographies_during-my-second-year-at-edinburgh-1826_1350666.jpg)
![“A surprising number [of novels] have been read aloud to me, and I like all if moderately good, and if they do not end unhappily-against which a law ought to be passed.” quote by Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6bb/charles-darwin-507_biographies_a-surprising-number-of-novels-have-been_2530641.jpg)
![“About weak points [of the Origin] I agree. The eye to this day gives me a cold shudder, but when I think of the fine known gradations, my reason tells me I ought to conquer the cold shudder.” quote by Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/513/charles-darwin-507_agree_about-weak-points-of-the-origin-i-agree_2921950.jpg)
![“Your words have come true with a vengeance that I shd [should] be forestalled ... I never saw a more striking coincidence. If Wallace had my M.S. sketch written out in 1842 he could not have made a better short abstract! Even his terms now stand as Heads of my Chapters.” quote by Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/255/charles-darwin-507_abstract_your-words-have-come-true-with-a-vengean_2253853.jpg)
